VerbrechenStrafe
by Ryuuen Chou
Summary: Part one of the Beautiful Dangerous story arc. Retelling of the events of the OVA, with a twist. (shounen-ai, violence, language, spoilers for the OVA)


Verbrechen~Strafe  
Part One of the "Beautiful Dangerous" Story Arc  
By Ryuuen  
  
Warnings: Shounen-ai, violence, blood, fighting, language, dark themes, spoilers for the OVA "Verbrechen~Strafe".  
  
The Premise: What if things had gone differently? What if they didn't know the mission was a fake, and Yohji and Aya really had tried to kill Omi and Ken?  
  
A/N: This is an idea I've been sitting on for a long time. What if Ken and Omi really were "targets" for Aya and Yohji? I've wanted to write this for a long time, so.. here it is! I have a plan, though.. so there will be more of this than just the one part (hence the "story arc" reference in the header). Please keep your eyes out for part two, "Living". Please read and review, C&Cs welcome! Arigato gozaimasu!  
  
Note: The song for this chaper is "Beautiful Alone", by Weiss. ^_^ The translation I found on Tetris no Miko's site.. and hope she doesn't mind that I used it. ^^;;; Gomen ne, gomen ne! I did, however, take a bit of liberty on the lyrics.. the part where it goes, "the quiet rain wets me gently" didn't sound right to me, so I changed it to "the quiet rain washes over me gently". It sounds more poetic. The gods know I'm a sucker for poetry! ^_~  
  
Note 2: This ficcy starts at the point where Ken and Omi are in the little room in the carnival place.. Yohji and Aya are trying to figure out where they are.. etc. Okay? Cool. So, basically, it's "Strafe". Since nothing would really much change from "Verbrechen". ^_^  
VERBRECHEN~STRAFE  
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~"The streets are shrouded with harsh words. People come and go. Faith might kill me."~  
  
He looked so innocent, the child who leaned his head against the man's shoulder as he slept. No one would ever guess that this innocent child was a killer, and seventeen years old. He looked much younger.  
  
Next to him, sleeping uneasily, was a young man who could have been the boy's older brother, or a best friend. He looked perhaps seventeen himself, but actually he was nineteen. Worry was painted on his face, even in sleep.  
  
Slowly, blue eyes peeked open, quickly assuring himself that everyone else was asleep. Silently, trying not to disturb the innocent-looking boy at his side, he rose, going to walk outside.  
  
"Ken-kun?" He was stopped by that voice, his head turning just slightly to ascertain that it was, indeed, the boy, his comrade and best friend, who had stopped him. The early-morning sun glinted off the boy's short blonde hair, his dark-blue eyes wide, curious. "You're going to go alone?"  
  
Silently, Ken cursed himself for not knowing that, of course Omi wouldn't sleep so easily. Of course he would be woken by his movement. And now he felt perfectly awful about trying to leave without him.  
  
After a few moments of badgering from the boy, they both walked away from the large, gaudy carnival, letting the rising sun warm their bodies, though their hearts knew no such heat.  
  
~"These days, I embrace nothing but uneasiness. If only you were with me right now, then I would never let you go."~  
  
"I told you, the next time we met, we'd be enemies." The words froze him to the core, and he felt his resolve weakening with every spoken syllable.  
  
"Yohji-kun! You're my friend, I don't want to fight you!" He cried, trying to ignore the way his friend's eyes flicked downwards towards his watch as though it didn't matter that they were friends. As though it didn't matter that he cared.  
  
"Omi.." The blonde's gaze flickered upwards again, and Omi could almost see some kind of regret there. "Omi, you know the rules.. you turned against WeiB.."  
  
"Demo, Yohji-kun...!" The boy's shout was silenced when the older assassain's cruel wire wrapped around his body, tightening so that he could hardly breathe, biting into his skin hard enough to draw blood. "Yohji-kun...!"  
  
"Iie. Omi. You brought this on yourself." Then, almost too quietly to be heard, "I'm sorry."  
  
Omi coughed, feeling the supply of air to his lungs being slowly cut off, and his coughs ended up bloody. He felt the sticky red liquid trail down his chin, and his eyes filled with tears.  
  
"Yohji-kun no tomodachi.." The boy whispered hoarsely, coughed again. "Ken-kun.. Aya-kun... watashi no tomodachi, ne?... ne, Yohji-kun?"  
  
The older of the two turned away from the desperate tone of Omi's voice, feeling tears fall down his own face.  
  
"Hai.. Omi.. omae wa tomodachi no ore.."  
  
~"I stand at the sound of the clock. The way I live for today is to forget the past."~  
  
A sword glinted menacingly in the sunlight. No words were needed on behalf of the redheaded swordsman, knowing already what he was going to do. What he had to do.  
  
That same sunlight glared on long, metal claws, protruding from a leather glove, the wearer of which held an almost frightened expression, as though begging for it to be over soon.  
  
"Aya!" The second man yelled, "Aya, why are we doing this? It's not right!"  
  
"My mission is to kill you." The redhead replied simply, his voice monotone and emotionless. "I will fulfill that mission."  
  
"You can't be serious!" Ken, the brown-haired man, asked. In reply, he found himself blocking off a sword aimed at his throat. He winced at the sound of metal-on-metal as his bugnuks collided with the silvery katana.  
  
Letting instinct take over, the brown-haired assassain twisted out of the katana's hold, swinging around to engage his former comrade once again. Several such confrontations later, Ken felt his arm tiring. He knew he had to end this.  
  
Swinging in for another strike, he felt the opposition suddenly shatter as the katana did, and felt his bugnuks bury themselves in his former friend's body. He saw the redhead fall to the ground, and felt sudden, painful tears in his eyes. As he looked down at his blood-stained claws, the salty liquid poured down his face, mixing with the blood from the battle.  
  
"I never thought.. that you would be the one.. to defeat me.." Aya whispered hoarsely. Ken had to strain to hear. He looked down upon his former friend, choking back a sob.  
  
"Neither did I, Aya.." He said quietly. "Neither did I."  
  
He fell to his knees, grief claiming him, and felt a sorrowful cry building in his throat. With a wail, as tears fell, he let it loose. A scream that lasted so long it might have gone on forever, if he hadn't fallen back into an exhausted, sudden sleep.  
  
~"We are lonely together. As if to pile our loneliness together, we kiss. The painful wounds we gave each other bring tidings of a beautiful parting."~  
  
This isn't worth it.. the thought crossed his mind with a kind of angry urgency, making him pause in his retreat. He held his breath, hearing, almost as though from a great distance, the ragged, thin breaths of his former comrade. He called me his friend. I have no right to just.. to leave him there. Even if it is WeiB, even if it is what Aya wants.. I can't just walk away.  
  
He walked back to his unconscious friend, trying to be gentle as he removed the fiber wires from where they were wrapped tightly against the small body, trying not to wince as he saw the wounds that had been inflicted, even with such a weapon as that. He picked the boy up, gently, and went to find Aya and Ken, not minding the blood soaking into his clothes. Trying not to think of how shallow the boy's breathing was, how Aya might just kill Omi anyway, even though Yohji had saved him. How it might amount to nothing; Omi might die anyway. Most of all, he tried not to think of that. He didn't honestly think he could stand to lose anyone else he cared about.  
  
Ever since Asuka's death, he had avoided becoming close to anyone. Now, he found that his fate was intertwined with that of these three.. the ones who called him "friend" or "love". The ones he cared about, the ones who had become his family, in the truest form of the word. He could no longer fathom how he had been able to defile his beautiful "otouto", how he had managed to even attempt to clip this shining angel's wings. How he could even think about destroying the only family he had left. He had once again become close to someone.. several someones. He refused to lose them as well.  
  
With every staggering, fatigue-ridden step, his resolve strengthened.  
  
I won't leave you behind, Omittchi.. I won't.  
  
~"Only the sorrowful night is sure to see shadows of love; shadows wandering lost on the moon."~  
  
White. Everything was.. white. He closed his eyes against it, only to open them again when he heard a voice, calling his name.  
  
"Omi?" The familiar voice asked, and he turned his head slightly, seeing an equally familiar brown-haired young man, sitting in a chair next to the bed, looking relieved but solemn, brown eyes clouded with both sorrow and happiness. "Omi, you're awake. Thank the Gods."  
  
"Ne.. Ken-kun.." Everything was very fuzzy to Omi, like he was seeing and experiancing everything while inside of some kind of cotton bag. "How long.. how long have I been here? What happened?"  
  
He tried to sit up, but pain shot through his entire body, and he coughed, lying back down. Ken gave him a worried look. He looked down and saw that just about every part of his body was covered in bandages where the wires had cut and squeezed him. He frowned at this, and winced a little at the memory.  
  
"Shhh. Omi, don't try to sit up. You were really badly hurt." Ken soothed, trying to relax the tense teenager. "You've been asleep for the better part of a week. The doctors kept saying they didn't think you'd wake up.."  
  
Ken's feelings on the matter were clearly expressed by the tears that gathered in his eyes, quickly escaping to slide, unchecked, down his cheeks. Omi wished he could reach up to wipe away those tears, but he felt too weak to even attempt such a feat. He felt tears sting his own eyes, and realized abruptly how just how much he had worried about his friend, how desperately he had prayed, in those last moments before he had blacked out, that he, at least, would get away and not die.  
  
"Ken-kun.." Omi whispered through tears, giving his friend a real, genuine smile. "Ken-kun.. I'm glad.. that you're okay.."  
  
Ken smiled back at him weakly. "Hai... and I'm glad that you're not dead.. baka."  
  
It seemed that between them, at least, everything would be fine. Neither was quite sure about how they would react, when it came time to face Yohji and Aya, but they knew that, at least, they would do it together.  
  
~"If eternity should end, all will be enveloped in emptiness. If only I had the wings of a swallow, that I may dissappear into the heavens."~  
  
Violet eyes flickered open, staring up into worried green ones. A confused look entered the redhead's expression before dissappating, questions answered by a simple look at his surroundings.  
  
"Aya.. ohayou." The blonde assassain greeted with his usual grin, though his eyes betrayed his worry. The red-haired man tried to smile back, but found himself too weak to do even that.  
  
"They drugged me, didn't they?" He asked weakly, raising an eyebrow. The blonde nodded, snickering softly. "K'so."  
  
"Well, I don't think you'd remember, but you were giving them one hell of a time in the OR." Yohji said, his grin widening as his lover tried to raise his arm to slap him, but found himself unable to do even that. "They've kept you drugged since then, so that you can't kill any of the pretty nurses."  
  
Aya settled for glaring to let his boyfriend know his opinion on the matter.  
  
Yohji just laughed.  
  
"Well, they are pretty!" The blonde protested with more laughter, green eyes smiling more sincerely than his lips ever had. "Daijobu. I'm not about to leave you. I'd be too afraid that you'd hunt me down and kill me."  
  
"Damn straight." Aya said, smiling softly.  
  
~"The quiet rain washes over me gently. Whenever I search for something else... in exchange, I lose love."~  
  
"Yohji-kun." The quiet voice seemed to suddenly command him, and he turned to face the owner of that voice almost without thinking. His eyes widened when they were instantly met with those dark-blue, tortured depths.  
  
"Omi.." He started, but the boy held up a hand to stop him.  
  
"Yohji-kun.." Omi paused, his eyes closing briefly, as though thinking. "Yohji-kun.. watashi.. watashi no tomodachi."  
  
Then the boy turned, and walked away with as much grace as he could muster through the bandages and his ragged breathing, from walking too far, too fast, when he was still healing.  
  
Yohji felt a stab of pain in his heart at the boy's statement.  
  
What kind of monster am I, to ruin something so beautiful and fragile? he wondered. He trusted me.. trusted me with his very soul. I destroyed him, didn't I?  
  
"Didn't I?" He mouthed with silent grief.  
  
~"We are sad together. As if to soothe our sadness together, we embrace. The fond memories we once shared will paint the picture that we are beautiful alone."~  
  
"Are you sure, Omi?" Ken asked for about the hundreth time, his eyes sad. He caught the look the younger WeiB was giving him, though, and quickly shut up and went back to the forms he was filling out.  
  
"I wouldn't say it if I wasn't, Ken-kun." Omi said, then, seeing Ken's skeptical look, added, "and don't say anything. Just fill out the release forms, onegai. I want to go home. I hate hospitals."  
  
Ken snickered at Omi's childish statements, but said nothing. The last thing he needed was an angry Omi. An anxious one was just about all he could handle right now.  
  
Finally, he handed to papers to the receptionist, and motioned for Omi to stand up.  
  
"Come on, Omi." He said with a smile. "It's time to go home."  
  
"Hai... home. Finally."  
  
~"We are lonely together. As if to pile our loneliness together, we kiss. The painful wounds we gave to each other bring tidings of a beautiful parting."~  
...To Be Continued...  
In Part Two, "Living" 


End file.
